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China, Tartar and Mongol Dynasties

ca AD 907 to 1367

IRON ARROW POINT 100.8 mm long, 9.5 mm wide and 5.3 mm thick on the blade. Fairly heavy rust, but still lots of good solid metal. Reasonably nice condition for a medieval iron arrow point. Chinese points of this period come in a few well-defined shapes, that I am sure had very specific functions. This particular point, being very narrow, was probably designed to pierce metal armor plates.

Most medieval Chinese iron arrow points I have seen offered recently have been attributed to the Liao Dynasty of the Tartars in the period from AD 907 to 1125. I have a great deal of trouble with this narrow period of attribution, and it is my belief the same basic arrow points were probably made throughout the Tartar and Mongol period (AD 907 to 1367), and that it is virtually impossible to narrow any given example to an exact Dynasty within that period.

Virtually identical shaped iron arrow points, although usually somewhat thinner and less well made, were being manufactured in western Europe at this time. It is not clear to me if this is because the western Europeans came up with the same solutions to the same problems of weapon design, or if the two cultures had an influence on each other and copied each others designs.